momenta Resource Pack

momenta

Choreographed by Rafael Bonachela

About This Resource Pack

This Resource Pack will help you understand the choreographic processes Rafael Bonachela undertook with Sydney Dance Company dancers to create momenta. There are a range of activities for you to follow, including reading, writing, watching, and undertaking your own creative tasks.

The pack contains a BEFORE THE SHOW section with ideas for research and discussion in the lead up to seeing momenta and an AFTER THE SHOW section with follow-up tasks to support learning in performance, composition and appreciation The suggested activities in the momenta Resource Pack can be further adapted by teachers to suit the requirements of Stages 4-6 in NSW and the equivalent in other states.

Look out for the icons on each page to assist you through the range of activities. Your teacher will help guide you through the different elements of the Resource Pack and complete the tasks.

KEY

Throughout this document, you will see the following icons:

Before the Show

After the Show

“Dance allows individuals and communities to shape their cultural identity and express their deepest feelings. These experiences continue to resonate throughout our lives, transforming our minds, bodies and souls.”

Rafael Bonachela

About Sydney Dance Company

Dance changes you. More than simply witnessing something beautiful, or engaging with culture, to experience dance is to be positively altered. From performances at the Joyce Theatre in New York, to the Grand in Shanghai, the Stanislavsky in Moscow and the Sydney Opera House at home, Sydney Dance Company has proved that there are no passive observers in a contemporary dance audience.

The reward of truly moving audiences, and the raw pride of sharing Australian art with the world has driven our Ensemble of 17 dancers, led by Artistic Director Rafael Bonachela, to become one of the world’s strongest forces in contemporary dance. Alongside Bonachela’s original works, our programs have featured guest choreographers like Antony Hamilton, Jacopo Godani, Alexander Ekman, Gideon Obarzanek and Cheng Tsung-lung, as well as collaborations with Sydney Festival, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, David Jones and composers Bryce Dessner, Nick Wales, 48nord and the late Ezio Bosso.

What is Contemporary Dance?

20th century modern dance pioneers deviated from established dance styles to create work where “an element itself is expressive; what it communicates is in large part determined by the observer themselves” (Merce Cunningham). There is no passive contemporary dance audience. You are, as Sydney Dance Company’s Artistic Director Rafael Bonachela insists, “our most important collaborator.” This means that there is no correct response to a performance, or required learning to get the most out of it. You are only required to be present and to allow yourself to be moved.

Anything can happen. It is not mainstream nor the stuff of fairy tales; you should just be prepared to feel something. You will witness artistic risks being taken across a multitude of forms from technology to film, visual arts to design and fashion; contemporary dance brings together the work of influential artists in different fields. It is ever evolving.

Our Origins

Founded in 1969 by dancer Suzanne Musitz, and soon known as The Dance Company (NSW), from 1975-1976 the Company was directed by Dutch choreographer Jaap Flier, before the appointment of Australian choreographer Graeme Murphy in 1976. In 1979 Murphy and his partner Janet Vernon instituted the defining name change to Sydney Dance Company and proceeded to lead it for a remarkable 30 years. Murphy and his collaborators created work that enthralled audiences in Australia and in extensive international touring, including being the first western contemporary dance company to perform in the People’s Republic of China.

Sydney Dance Company has been led since 2009 by Spanish-born Artistic Director Rafael Bonachela Under Bonachela’s direction, the Company has cemented its reputation as a creative powerhouse, with an acclaimed group of dancers presenting new work by Bonachela and other choreographers,

designers, composers and musicians. The Company has expanded its reach into the towns and cities it visits across Australia with work for schools and local dancers.

Since 1986 the Company has been a resident of the purpose-built, and recently refurbished, studios at The Wharf in Sydney’s Walsh Bay, minutes from the city’s famed Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House.

Our studios are situated on the lands and over the waters of the Gadigal. We recognise their continuing connection to the land and waters and thank them for protecting this coastline and its ecosystems since time immemorial.

We pay our respects to Elders past and present and extend that respect to all First Nations people.

Introducing Artistic Director Rafael Bonachela

Rafael Bonachela was born in Barcelona where he began his early dance training before moving to London. In 1992 he joined the legendary Rambert Dance Company.

He remained with Rambert as a dancer and Associate Choreographer until 2006 when he successfully set up the Bonachela Dance Company (BDC) to concentrate on the rapid rise of his choreographic career. As a choreographer, Rafael has been commissioned to make works for Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company, Candoco, George Piper Dances, ITDANSA Danza, Contemporanea de Cuba, Transitions Dance Company and Dance Works Rotterdam, amongst others.

In 2008, Bonachela premiered 360°, his first fulllength production for Sydney Dance Company. Less than six months later, he was appointed Artistic Director, making headlines around the dance world. His vision for the Company embraces a guiding principle that has seen the repertoire grow, with the addition of commissioned dance works from Australian and visiting international guest choreographers. These works are often programmed alongside Rafael’s own creations, ensuring diversity for audiences and providing much sought-after opportunities for his remarkable Ensemble of dancers to be exposed to the work of some of the most in-demand choreographers of our time.

Rafael Bonachela’s internationally recognised talent has seen him work not only with contemporary dance at the highest level, but also with artists from popular culture, such as Kylie Minogue, Tina Turner, Sarah Blasko and Katie Noonan, as well as leading fashion designers Bianca Spender, Dion Lee and Toni Maticevski. Such collaborative efforts reflect the inspiration he finds and utilises from contemporary culture.

You can read more of Rafael’s biography here

Introducing Company Dancers

Anika Boet

Connor McMahon

Liam Green

Chloe Young

Dean Elliott

Luke Hayward

Coco Wood

Emily Seymour

Morgan Hurrell

Naiara de Matos

Riley Fitzgerald

Tayla Gartner (trainee)

Ngaere Jenkins

Ryan Pearson

Timmy Blankenship

Sophie Jones

About momenta

Sydney Dance Company explodes on stage in Rafael Bonachela’s latest creation momenta. From the most tender exchanges to an intense physical storm, witness an extraordinary force of movement, striking individuality and powerful unity, escalating to a joyous release.

The connection is instinctive. The moment is transformational.

momenta takes audiences on a journey into the poetry and physicality of human bonds. This mesmerising work presents a kaleidoscope of energy, capturing moments where individual trajectories collide and intertwine.

Rich with rhythmical and spatial patterning, Sydney Dance Company dancers transcend physical limitations; they explore the full range of their bodies with grace, power and vulnerability. Each moment resonates through space, drawing the audience into a world of raw emotion.

Through the captivating interplay of Bonachela’s signature choreographic style, Nick Wales’ evocative soundscapes, Elizabeth Gadsby’s impressive set design and Damien Cooper’s striking lighting, momenta gathers the hurtling vectors of our lives into confluence and connection. For audiences and dancers alike, it is an invitation to rejoice in the beauty and fragility of our shared humanity.

A Note From the Choreographer, Rafael Bonachela

Momenta is the plural of momentum, originated from the latin word movimentum which means movement or motion. momenta implies a series of momentums.

The development of momenta began exploring the concepts of momentum, force movement, time and space. I was driven by the connection between the moment and the now, the cycles of time and how we could use these concepts as impetus in the creation of the work.

A moment in time. A moment between people. A moment of emotional encounters.

For me personally, collaboration is a way of staying connected to an ongoing source of inspiration. I am thrilled I had the opportunity to put together a dream team to bring momenta to life; the music of super talented and long-time collaborator Nick Wales; and lighting design by the inimitable master of light Damien Cooper.

momenta shows Sydney Dance Company dancers transcending physical limitations. They explore the full range of their bodies with grace, power, and vulnerability. Each moment resonates through space, drawing the audience into a world of raw emotion.

About momenta

The Music

Music is often where choreographer Rafael Bonachela finds his inspiration for his works.

One of the first decisions that Rafael made about momenta was that he would use the already existing music featuring Distant Light composed by Pēteris Vasks, with original composition composed by long-time collaborator, Nick Wales.

Rafael was driven by his love for techno and classical music. He was particularly interested in how musical strings evoke a human aspect combined with electronic sounds to create an interesting and contrasting score.

Introducing Composer, Nick Wales

Visceral, immersive and progressive, Nick Wales’s electronic classical compositions are internationally sought after. From empowering beauty to magnetising dark passages, Wales’s textural music has inspired creative leaders across contemporary dance, popular and classical music, film and theatre.

Wales’s name is synonymous with contemporary dance. He has scored several major Sydney Dance Company works in collaboration with Artistic Director Rafael Bonachela since 2012. His baroque-meets-electronica soundtrack for 2 One Another saw 100 performances worldwide and was followed by 2 in D Minor, Scattered Rhymes (with Tarik O’Reagan) and the jagged glitch and chilling vocals of Emergence, written in partnership with singer-songstress Sarah Blasko. Other recent commissions include collaborations with Marina Mascarelle for Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon and Marrugeku for Le Dernier Appel.

He has composed eight dance theatre pieces for Sean Parker and Company, including the Helpmann Award nominated AM I, The Yard, This Show is About People and the internationally performed Happy as Larry, Spill and Trollys.

Nick’s collaboration Nyapillilngu (Spirit Lady) with Aboriginal song man Rrawun Maymuru

was featured in Sydney Dance Company’s 2017 production Ocho. Released internationally in 2020, the pair received the Indigenous Language Award at the 2020 National Indigenous Music Awards.

In 2019 Nick co-curated the soundscapes for the Powerhouse Museum’s retrospective exhibition Step Into Paradise featuring the fashion of Jenny Kee and Linda Jackson. 2020 has seen him return to the Powerhouse Museum to co-create the musical score for the Maton Guitar exhibition with collaborators Stereogamous.

While Wales’s contemporary dance scores are both challenging and abstract, his pop sensibilities are undeniable. Traversing all genres as a founding member of ARIA nominated classical-fusion band CODA, he has also collaborated with Sarah Blasko for a number of years, writing the orchestral arrangements for her 2012 album I Awake and cowriting material and string arrangements for her albums on Eternal Return and Depth of Field.

Wales’s undergraduate studies in composition were completed at Sydney University under Peter Sculthorpe, Ross Edwards and Anne Boyd. Nick holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Screen Composition from AFTRS.

About Distant Light Composed by Petris Vasks

One of the prevailing characteristics of Vasks’ music is its sheer beauty of sound, and his Violin Concerto Distant Light (Tala gaisma in Vasks’ original Latvian), composed in 1996–7 at the request of Gidon Kremer, observes the basic topos of many other Vasks’ works in its suggestion that music can relieve suffering and assuage grief. When he read Kremer’s book Childhood Fragments he realised they had gone to the same school: ‘But we have only really met now in music. Distant Light is nostalgia with a touch of tragedy. Childhood memories, but also the glittering stars millions of light years away.’

The opening of Distant Light, which is built in a single span of music, places Vasks stylistically exactly where his geographical origins are –

between Pärt and Lutoslawski. The violin line slowly opens out over a gentle bed of growingly confident string tone, part diatony, part cluster. The strings disappear behind the first of three cadenzas, the basses then taking up a beautiful lament as the soloist soars ecstatically above. A bright-eyed, folk-like dance episode introduces a change of mood and tempo but is abruptly silenced by the second cadenza – which itself snaps to a close as the basses begin another poignant elegy. The third cadenza, with some deliberately ugly sounds, unleashes what one commentator has called ‘aleatory chaos’ before a rather ill-bred waltz stamps it into submission and an extended coda revisits some of the earlier material and lays the music to gentle rest.

About momenta

The Choreography

The development of momenta began with Rafael exploring the concepts of momentum, force movement, time and space. He was driven by the connection between the moment and the now, the cycles of time and how he could use these concepts as impetus in the creation of momenta

Rafael worked in a collaborative manner with the dancers by developing a series of new creative tasks and a choreographic approach that he hadn’t used before to generate new movement for momenta

This was an opportunity for the dancers to lean into their creative skills and a chance to see themselves in a different way or present themselves in a way that they haven’t in the past.

The creative process started as a series of structured tasking where Rafael asked the dancers to be in the moment with a sense of energy and urgency to create. This moving power was the force driving the work forward.

Students can explore some of these creative tasks included in the resource pack.

Watch the Behind the Scenes: The creation of Rafael Bonachela’s momenta

Watch the Behind the Scenes: Step into the studio with Rafael Bonachela

About the Production Elements

A production like momenta requires many people to contribute to the final product that you see on stage. To create a dance for the stage there are two phases:

1. Choreographic Creation and Pre-Production

This phase involves planning, creating, working as a team and problem solving prior to being on stage.

2. Performance and Production

This phase brings a work to life and is what the audience gets to enjoy every performance.

About the Team Who Created momenta

Meet Damien Cooper – Lighting Designer

Damien Cooper works internationally across theatre, opera and dance. Damien’s dance credits for Sydney Dance company include; Somos, ab [intra], Impermanence, Cinco, Ocho, Grand, Air and Other Invisible Forces and Orb.

For lighting design, Damien has won three Sydney Theatre Awards, three Green Room Awards, and two Australian Production Design Guild Awards.

A note from the Lighting Designer

My father had a huge science fiction collection which I read during my childhood. Adams, Asimov, Burroughs, Clarke, Herbert, King, Le Guin, Tolkien. Fantastic worlds dripping in surreal imagery. I seem to have taken these stories, images, ideas into my work as a lighting designer. All that childhood imagery vastly different to the modern Hollywood interpretations. What an opportunity to create worlds of colour, angles of light, strange but familiar worlds.

Meet Elizabeth Gadsby – Costume and Set Designer

Elizabeth Gadsby is an artist and set designer. She primarily creates work for live performance including theatre, dance, ballet and opera.

Elizabeth’s most recent credits include designing the set for Yuleda by Bangarra Dance Company, set and costumes for Cosi Fan Tutte for Opera Queensland and set and costume design for The Visitors at Sydney Theatre Company directed by Wesley Enoch.

Elizabeth designed the critically acclaimed operas Awakening Shadow and Antarctica for Sydney Chamber Opera. Additional opera highlights include, co-director and costume designer for the Sydney Chamber Opera and Victorian Opera production of The Rape of Lucretia, presented at Carriageworks in Sydney and the Theatre Royal in Hobart.

Elizabeth has been a recipient of numerous Australia Council and Create NSW grants, a William Fletcher Scholar and was the 2015 artist in residence for City of Sydney’s Creative Living Work Space program.

A note from the Lighting Designer

The scenography for momenta is a series of environmental gestures that contemplate the notion of movement on a universal level as well as within the body. These gestures emerge and dissolve as they are corrupted by the moving bodies.

We wanted to make tangible the “cosmic background” of gravitational waves constantly vibrating through the universe, as well as drawing attention to breath as a constant force within the dancers’ bodies.

We are interested in how even in a state of stillness there is constant movement, from the breath to blood flow to vibrating atoms. The lighting structure in the space creates force and disruption first through its physical presence and then through the direction force of the light.

About the Team Who Created momenta Performance and Production

There are many people who work with the creative team to bring a work to the stage. The team who have worked on momenta are listed below.

Richard Cilli — Rehearsal Director Charmene Yap — Rehearsal Associate

As key members of the artistic team, Richard and Charmene lead rehearsals to make the performance the best it can be every performance and create the dancers’ schedule when they are in the studio and performing.

Simon Turner — Stage Manager

Simon communicates with the whole team to ensure the show runs smoothly, letting the dancers know when they’re needed on stage, and telling the sound engineer to start a new sound cue.

Guy Harding — Technical Director

Guy is the technical expert who supervises various aspects of momenta like lighting and set changes throughout the work. Guy worked closely with costume and set designer, Elizabeth Gadsby to bring her vision to life, including the staging elements and the seating in the round for momenta.

Annie Robinson — Head of Wardrobe

Annie’s job is to sew the Costume Designer’s ideas into items of clothing, making sure the dancers costumes are comfortable to dance in, and ensuring they’re clean and mended for every performance.

Exploring the Stimulus Creative Development Task

– Moment-by-Moment Metaphors

Solo Creation

The following solo creative task was given to the company dancers by Rafael to generate and inspire new movement for momenta. This task was designed to evoke personal and individual responses in keeping true to the nature of the concept of ‘a moment in time’ and ‘moment by moment’

The way in which written text is embodied into movement can be open to interpretation for each dancer creating the movement, and each audience member viewing it.

Aim

To create a movement phrase based on quick instinctual responses that come from written text. The goal of this creative task is not to act out or dramatize the words, but to find interesting ways of creatively responding to the text by the exploration of movement and time.

The movement does not need to keep true to the text but could be an instinctual reaction that could be a few moves or repetitive gestures to each of the Moment-by-Moment Metaphors.

Part 1 – Improvise and Explore

1. Refer to the Moment-by-Moment Metaphors on page 22. You or your teacher may print the page and cut out each metaphor to place around the room, or refer to them on the sheet. You will start the task with one metaphor.

2. Set a timer for one-minute intervals for 8-10 intervals.

3. At each interval you will change to the next metaphor. (You may extend the interval to 2-minutes to allow for more time to explore the metaphor should you require it)

4. For the first part of the task, you do not need to set any movement. This exploration could include a few moves or repetitive gestures for the metaphor but the intention is for this to be an instinctual response.

5. The aim is to complete 8-10 rounds so that you work with each metaphor. You can have multiple students using one metaphor as long as you improvise and explore on your own.

Extension:

Share your phrase with another person. You could create a duo in unison or a duet where you could support and move with your partner. You could then combine two duos to create a small group phrase.

Part 2 – Creating a Solo Phrase

Choose an aural accompaniment such as a piece of music, soundscape or spoken word. You could use any music to accompany this task, or a song from Sydney Dance Company’s playlist as you create

6. After improvising and exploring each of the metaphors, select one or two metaphors you are most connected with or intrigued by based on your previous instinctual exploration of the text.

7. Begin to structure your movements into a solo phrase.

8. Play with changing and manipulating your solo phrase by

a. Moving the phrase as fast as you can on the spot

b. Moving the phrase as fast as you can around the room

c. Moving the phrase or certain parts of the phrase in slow motion

d. Repeat a movement

e. Change the direction of the movement

f. Play with the tempo such as adding a suspension or hold

g. Move a different body part to perform the movement

Exploring the Stimulus

Creative Development

Task

– Momentum Metaphors

Solo Creation (continued)

Print the Moment-by-Moment Metaphors and cut each phrase to place around the room

never a dull moment

A reflective sigh, lament relative to possible or actual undesirable conditions or developments

moment in the sun

A brief instance in which an otherwise obscure, unremarkable, or humble person draws attention.

crack of dawn

The first moment of daylight; sunrise.

one moment, please

Used to ask a person to wait a moment.

on the spur of the moment

On very short notice; spontaneously.

seize the day

To enjoy the present and not worry about the future; to live for the moment.

at hand

Being at the moment the centre of attention or the cause of trouble.

in the nick of time

At the last possible moment; at the last minute.

cut it fine

To achieve something at the last possible moment, or with no margin for error.

line in the sand

A defining moment, a cutoff point.

Exploring the Stimulus

Part B: Creative Development Task - Creating a Duet

In the creative process of momenta, Rafael used the concept of gravity and the stimulus of a pendulum to explore motion and the ephemeral nature of these forces. The dancers used a simple duet task focused on gravity and falling to research new movement and choreographic ideas.

A pendulum motion is a force that keeps an object moving and gravity is the force that pulls it to the ground. Through these ideas the dancers created interesting and innovative duets that are dynamic and exciting to watch.

1. You and your partner will pick one of the gravity symbols (found in the next column) as a starting point for the duet.

2. With your partner, find three to five versions of each of the gravity symbol you have chosen and connect these into one set piece of choreography.

a. Your duet can have transition movements between each version of the fall.

b. The fall versions could be adapted by changing the energy and dynamics at different points. See some suggestions below

• Weight and force – how does changing the weight and force influence the dynamic of the fall.

• Levels – how can adjust your falling movement to incorporate alternative levels

• Staggered falls – how can you adopt a staggered fall to the ground

• Connection – how can you remain in contact with each other

Aim

To create a duet that explores the concepts of gravity and pendulum, and how they can initiate and propel movement.

You will need to work in pairs for this task.

Gravity Symbols

• Spiral and fall

• Fold and fall

• Upside down and fall

• Backwards arch and fall

• Counterbalance and fall

• Collision and fall

• Catch and fall

• Fall and retrograde

Reflective Task

Suggested Questions for Discussion

Write down your initial thoughts after watching momenta and discuss.

You may wish to brainstorm this as a group. Use the questions below to assist with articulating your thoughts and ideas:

• What was your interpretation of momenta?

• What sections, movements or pieces did you like or dislike, and why? Can you describe these using the elements of dance?

• What feelings or emotions did you experience when watching the work? What specifically about the performance made you feel this way?

• What did the work make you think about?

• Did you observe any choreographic tools used throughout the work such as symmetrical and asymmetrical movements, unison, repetition, canon, group formations and changes of directions and levels? How did these impact on your interpretation of the work?

• How did the different aspects (movement, music, set, lighting and costumes) impact your experience?

• What production elements did you see? (lighting, staging and set design)

Research Task: Choreographic Style

Utilising multiple sources such as

• Web-search

• Library

• Interviews

• YouTube videos

• Articles or reviews

Research Sydney Dance Company’s Artistic Director, Rafael Bonachela’s choreographic style by utlising the sources above. Reflect and describe how Rafael’s style is presented in the performance of momenta and how does this relate or differ to his other works.

You may choose to present your findings through a demonstration, speech, essay, presentation, discussion or other form.

You should employ descriptive terminology, dance terminology and elements of dance when describing movement through this written or verbal task.

Discussion points for consideration

• What types of music choices has Rafael made in previous works? What is the relationship between the music and movement?

• What design choices are made in Rafael’s other works in relation to costume, set and lighting?

• What influences can you see in Rafael’s choreography and productions? This could be in relation to themes or references, costume, set or lighting choices.

Extension:

You may choose to research another Australian contemporary choreographer. Analyse a performance work and reflect on how their choreographic style is presented.

Write a comparison; are there any similarities or differences between choreographic styles, provide examples. You may choose to present their reflection through a presentation, demonstration, speech, essay, discussion or other form.

Research Task: Structure and Form

Research and investigate common ways choreographers structure their dance works.

Reflecting on the performance of momenta, write an extended paragraph describing the form and structure of the work. This could include information about how the visual and auditory elements of the performance help to define its sections.

You can use notes you made in the Reflective Task after watching momenta.

Extension:

Imagine you are a choreographer creating a new performance piece for stage or film. Design a flow chart, mood board or other visual guide that will help other creatives understand your concepts for the performance’s structure.

Note: You should consider the many elements that contribute to how structure is created, for example movement motif, visual and auditory elements, number of dancers, staging etc.

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